Erath sweeps own relays on Tuesday

The Erath Bobcats’ girls and boys track teams each took home first-place honors at the combined Snooks and Lady Bobcat Relays Tuesday night.
The meets were held Tuesday after getting postponed because of inclement weather last week.
The Lady Bobcats ran away with the meet, scoring 111 points with Kaplan a distant second at 87.5.
Three first-place finishes in the 4x100 meter relay, long jump and triple jump aided in the Lady Bobcats taking home the trophy in their first meet of the season.
“Being so early in the season, it’s a good evaluation period for me,” said Lady Bobcat head coach Jonathon Bouillion. “I had a lot of girls that I didn’t know what they could do, so tonight was good for us because we can start putting our team together and start getting two girls in each event.”
The 4x100 crew of Alexis Dorsey, Brooklyn Babineaux, Ali Bourque and Lindsey Darby took the event by nearly two seconds over Kaplan.
Sophomore Monette Bolden took the long jump and Darby set a new school record in the triple jump at 36-1.
The Lady Bobcat meet came a week later than expected because of the weather, but Bouillion said the combined meet actually worked out to his team’s benefit.
“It’s always stressful anytime you have so many teams,” he said. “With the support we have at the school, the people who come out (to the meets) enjoy track and it really worked out to our benefit.”
Kaplan earned wins in the 4x200 meter relay with the quartet of SaDieka Goodwill, Kendra Gums, Blair Hebert and Tori Riggs.
Gums also claimed first-place honors in the high jump with a mark of 5-2.
Gums was recognized as the female outstanding performer, racking up 22.5 points.
The Abbeville Lady Wildcats finished fifth, Delcambre finished seventh and the VC Lady Eagles finished 13th out of 15 squads.
On the boys’ side, the Bobcats ended with 119 total points, edging second place Berwick (106).
“You don’t know what to expect because it’s the first meet of the year,” said Bobcat coach Kerry Richard. “We had some real good performances, and we had some performances we need to work on. The kids know that; they want to get better. They’re getting in the swing of things, so it’s a plus.”
The Bobcats posted nine top-3 finishes, including first-place honors in the javelin throw (Karl Howell), long jump (Elijah Mitchell), pole vault (Tate Terrbone) and 110-meter hurdles (Shane Marceaux).
Mitchell was named the outstanding male performer after posting a first-place finish and three second-place finishes.
Kaplan’s Jalen Bates received the Outstanding Field Award with a first-place mark in the shot put and second in the discus throw.
Abbeville finished third overall with 94 team points and VC was fourth with 51.
Delcambre finished fifth (49) and Kaplan rounded out the local schools in eighth (41).
“It’s all about peaking at the right time,” Richard said. “You want your athletes to compete, but you don’t want anybody to go out there and have outstanding performance, then when it gets to district they regress. That’s the thing you want to hit on. It’s all a strategy.”